This invention relates to apparatus for the continuous production of a novel centerfilled food product. More particularly, the invention is directed to apparatus for producing a tubular centerfilled food product, having a rigid, friable, thermoplastic baked outer shell and a core of edible material surrounded by the shell, in a continuous, straight-through process.
A number of methods and apparatus have been used heretofore to provide cylindrical centerfilled food products. Such prior methods frequently have involved extrusion apparatus for extruding a mixture of a farinaceous material and water through a restricted orifice into a tubular configuration, under conditions such that the tubular product is puffed or expanded as it emerges for the orifice. The tubular product is cut to length and cooled, and a desired filling is injected into the core of the puffed tubular body. Such apparatus and methods suffer from the disadvantage that a number of separate steps are involved, each requiring separate handling of the fragile expanded tubular product. Also, because of the high temperatures and pressures to which the mix is subjected in the extruder, the ingredients which may be used in the mix are limited. For example, if the mix has a sugar content of above about 10%, the product tends to scorch or burn during passage through the extrusion apparatus. As a result, such expanded, extruded products must have a shell which consists essentially of cereal.
Another procedure which has been disclosed heretofore involves mounting a plurality of cylindrical molds on an endless conveyor, each of the molds having a rod extending horizontally into its interior. A dough is filled into the mold, and the mold carried into an oven for baking. The baked dough tubes are then stripped from the rods and held in a suitable manner to permit filling. This procedure also suffers from the disadvantage that separate shell forming and filling steps are required, each requiring separate handling of the product.
It is readily apparent that a process and apparatus for making baked centerfilled food products in which the shell is filed simultaneously with its formation would be desirable for it would reduce the number of handling steps involved. Heretofore the only procedure disclosed for such a simultaneous shell forming and filling operation involves a co-extrusion operation in which a shell of cereal dough is extruded around a core of a filling material. However, as noted above, due to the temperatures and pressures to which materials are exposed in the extruder, the ingredients which can be used in such a co-extrusion operation are restricted to thereby limit the type of products produced.